The present invention relates to a locking device for filing cabinets and more particularly to a locking device for "vertical file cabinets" of the type having vertically disposed drawers.
In the commercial area of office equipment and filing cabinets, it has been conventional to market a variety of filing cabinets having a variety of designs, prices, capacities, etc... In order to meet market demand, it has been customary to market differently priced filing cabinets which otherwise differ only by the presence or absence of a locking mechanism. One example of a filing cabinet which incorporates and includes a locking mechanism is to be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,323,849 issued June 6, 1967. It has been discovered, however, that those customers who originally were content to purchase a less expensive filing cabinet, frequently experience a change in requirements so that they later find the ability to lock the filing cabinet to be desirable. In response to this consomer demand, it is now possible in most designs, to purchase the necessary components required to modify a previously unlockable filing cabinet to one which can secure all of its drawers in a closed and locked position.
The conversion operations and components which have heretofore been available for converting a filing cabinet to a lockable filing cabinet have been unduly complicated so that the task of conversion was difficult to accomplish and quite exasperating. As a result, conversion of most cabinets requires the help of an experienced or mechanically minded person. Additionally, the multiplicity of parts required in the conversion have unduly increased the expense of the modification kit. Both of these effects have resulted from the inadequate design of the cabinets which, in most instances, have not easily accomodated conversion.
In addition to the market demand for a filing cabinet capable of conversion from an unlockable cabinet to a lockable cabinet, it has also been discovered that a need exists for a lockable cabinet with an easily exchangeable locking assembly. There are many circumstances that may arise which jeoparadize the security of a particular cabinet or set of cabinets: such as an unexplained missing key or the loss of a trusted employee or even the expansion of security files into cabinets previously used for non-security purposes. In such circumstances, it would be desireable for the cabinets to be equipped with a locking assembly which could be easily removed and replaced by an unskilled office employee or office manager without the need to call on the services of a locksmith or other skilled mechanic.
Thus is posed the problem of finding a method and apparatus which would permit the production of a standard cabinet useful as an unlockable cabinet and capable of conversion to a lockable cabinet either at the time of manufacture or at a later time which would permit the easy installation, removal and replacement of the lock assembly by an unskilled person. Desirably, such a locking device should be simpler, less aggravating to install, and more economical than has been previously available. The subject invention described below and a preferred embodiment of which follows realizes these objectives in a novel and elegant manner.